Ngolu

Ngolu Ilia (Te)
Spoken:	Áu
Total speakers:	100,000 (approx.)
Genealogy:	Isolate (as far as known)
Typology
Morphological type:	Isolating/futional
Morphosyntactic alignment:	Nominative-Accusative
Basic word order:	VSO
Credits
Creator:	Imralu
Created:	2013-2014

Ngolu, also known as Te or Ilia Te (endonym: ilia (te) IPA: [ìʎá(té)]) is a language isolate spoken throughout the space habitat Áu by the Ngolu people, whose number is estimated to be around 100,000. As the Ngolu are almost entirely monolingual, and while travel to and from Áu remains almost impossible, the language is not in any danger of extinction. At this stage, little is known of dialect differences.

Ngolu is an isolating/fusional, head-initial (right-branching) language with VSO word order and nominative-accusative alignment. Verbs (verbals) make up the only open class of word, with nouns (nominals) constituting a closed class of heavily fusional words that fill the roll of pronouns and articles in other languages, marking grammatical person, gender, number, case, definiteness and specificity.

Terminology

The Ngolu usually call their language ilia [ìʎá], which simply means 'language' or 'speech'. Many Ngolu in Áu do not recognise foreign languages such as English as communication when they hear them, and tend to refer to anything said in another language as maramaria [màɾàmàdʒá] ('babbling' or 'nonsense'). Ngolu on Earth have observed other languages being used between multiple people and typically recognise foreign languages as being capable of conveying meaning. The word ilia in that case refers to all languages. To disambiguate their own language, they may call it ilia te [ìʎáté] 'good language' (or sometimes ilia golu [ìʎáŋòlú] or ilias áu [ìʎásáw]).

The word áu [áw] means 'world' but specifically refers to the world Áu, not to Earth (which is known as aásu [àásù] or uuásu [ùwásù]). The English ethnonym 'Ngolu' derives from golu [ŋòlú] meaning 'person' or 'people'.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i ‹i›		u ‹u›
Mid	e ‹e›		o ‹o›
Low		a ‹a›

Each vowel may be 'strong' or 'weak'. The pronunciation of strong vowels varies across accents but it generally equates to a high tone whereas 'weak' vowels have a low tone. There is only ever one 'strong' vowel per word and it is nearly always the final vowel. Where it is not, it is always the penultimate vowel and the in that case the final vowel is always /i/ or /u/. Non-final strong vowels are indicated in the romanisation using an acute accent, ‹áéíóú›.

The high vowels, /i/ and /u/, when weak and adjacent to another vowel are pronounced non-syllabically as [i̯~j] and [u̯~w]). Non-syllabic /i/ merges with and palatalises any preceding dental/alveolar consonant.

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labiovelar	Dental/Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m ‹m›		n ‹n›		ŋ ‹g›
Plosive	b ‹b›		t ‹t›		k ‹k›	ʔ ‹q›
Ejective			tʼ ‹tt›		kʼ ‹kk›
Voiced Fricative		v ‹v›	z ‹z›	ʒ ‹j›
Voiceless Fricative			s ‹s›	ʃ ‹x›		h ‹h›
Tap			ɾ ‹r›
Lateral			l ‹l›

• The normal pronunciation of /n t tʼ ɾ l/ is dental. When these consonants are followed by a non-syllabic /i/, they are palatalised to [ɲ tʃ tsʼ dʒ ʎ] and the /i/ disappears.
• /ɾ/ is frequently pronounced as a voiced dental plosive.
• /s/ and /z/ are normally alveolar. When followed by a non-syllabic /i/, they are not distinguished from /ʃ ʒ/.
• /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ cannot be followed by non-syllabic /i/.
• The phonemes /s/ and /ɾ/ do not occur at the beginning of a word.
• The ejective consonants /tʼ/ and /kʼ/ are restricted to positions immediately before a 'strong' vowel, although there may be an intervening non-syllabic 'weak' /i/ or /u/. At the beginning of a 'weak' syllable, ejective consonants become pronounced as their equivalent plain plosive. For example, kka [kʼá] and kkue [kʷʼé] are allowed while expected *kkina (derived from kka plus the infix -in-) is instead present as kina [kì.ná]. In connected speech, /tʼ/ and /kʼ/ may be pronounced as [t̚ʔ k̚ʔ] or even [tː kː]. A strong ejective pronunciation is always heard post pausa.

Morphology

Nominals

Nominals are a large but closed class of words that are essentially the equivalent of pronouns and articles in other languages. They inflect for number, gender, grammatical person, definiteness, specificity and case. They can appear on their own or can be followed by a verbal. When followed by a verbal, they can be regarded as the head of an underlying relative clause which nominalises the verbal and allows it to function as an argument in the sentence.

As a pronoun:

xu

NOM.3s.DEF.INAN

"the thing"

it

As an article:

xu	mala
NOM.3s.DEF.INAN.REL	be.house
"the thing that"	"is a house"

the house

Number

Nominals indicate two numbers, singular and plural. Plural is marked by the prefix i-, which occurs before some case prefixes and after others (see [[Ngolu#Case|Case] below for more information]).

Singular:

xu	mala
NOM.3s.DEF.INAN.REL	be.house
"the thing that"	"is a house"

the house

Plural:

ixu	mala
NOM.3p.DEF.INAN.REL	be.house
"the things that"	"are houses"

the houses

Gender

All nominals show one of three genders.

• Inanimate (Ngolu: tiaka)
• Animate (Ngolu: kali)
• Masculine (Ngolu: muja)

It has been suggested that the label 'masculine' is misleading, as this gender is not simply used for any male person but only for adult men who have passed the initiation ceremony into manhood, whereupon they are muja.

The use of the genders partly depends on the speaker's rank, as shown in the following table.

	Kali/Tuva speaker	Muja speaker
Inanimate used for:	inanimate objects abstract concepts plants sessile animals	inanimate objects abstract concepts plants all animals other than pets slaves prisoners
Animate used for:	the goddess Nigáu free women free children free but non-initiated men slaves prisoners all motile animals	the goddess Nigáu free women free children free but non-initiated men pets
Masculine used for:	the god Uru initiated men	the god Uru initiated men

The following examples illustrate the difference.

The speaker is a muja, an initiated man:

kulu	ene	xu	ala
be.heard	DAT.1s.MASC	NOM.3s.DEF.INAN.REL	be.bird
"was heard"	"to me"	"the thing that"	"is a bird"

I heard the bird.

The speaker is a kali or tuva, not an initiated man:

kulu	eni	ju	ala
be.heard	DAT.1s.ANIM	NOM.3s.DEF.ANIM.REL	be.bird
"was heard"	"to me"	"the person who"	"is a bird"

I heard the bird.

The interplay between a speaker and listener's rank is complex and may result in unexpected gender choices. For example, a slave must refer to him- or herself in the inanimate gender when speaking to a muja unless specifically given permission otherwise. To read more about this, see Social Stratification and Language Use.

Person

Three grammatical persons are marked by nominals. The first person nominals contain n. The second person nominals contain a non-syllabic u (realised as v before u). In the third person, j, z, m, x, k and Ø appear depending on gender, definiteness and specificity.

Clusivity

The plural forms of all nominals are exclusive of other grammatical persons except for the first person plural forms inu and ina, which can include third person referents as well, especially when expressing closeness.

In order to group referents from more than one grammatical person together, the required nominals are juxtaposed. For example, inu (gloss: NOM.1s.ANIM) is the exclusive 'we'. The inclusive 'we' may take a form such as vu nu (gloss: NOM.2s.ANIM NOM.1s.ANIM) or na ivu (gloss: NOM.1s.MASC NOM.2p.ANIM), more or less equivalent to 'you and I'. Even addressing people in the second person, should the group include third persons, these are made not of separately, for example ja vu (gloss: NOM.3s.DEF.MASC NOM.2s.ANIM). The nominal ivu (gloss: NOM.2p.ANIM), for example, is only used to address two more people when all are present.

The order of the elements in these juxtapositions depends first on rank, with nominals referring to higher ranking referents appearing before those of lower ranking referents. When the referents are equally ranked, 2nd person precedes third person, which, in turn, preceds first person.

Nominal juxtapositions are characterised by all nominals being inflected in the same case. For example, the nominative ua na becomes eues ene in the dative and uua una in the possessive.

Nominal Tables

First Person

First person nominals are all definite.

	Anim. Sg.	Anim. Pl.	Masc. Sg.	Masc. Pl.
Nominative	nu	inu	na	ina
Accusative	ni	ini	ne	ine
Dative	eni	ieni	ene	iene
Ablative	nui	inui	nai	inai
Locative	nua	inua	ana	iana
Genitive	uni	iuni	une	iune
Possessive	*unu	*iunu	una	iuna
Vocative	enu	einu	ena	eina
Causal	teni	teini	tene	teine
Benefactive	kuani	kuaini	kuane	kuaine
Instrumental	ani	aini	ane	aine
Comitative	leni	leini	lene	leine
Topical	veni	veini	vene	veine
Essive	onu	oinu	ona	oina

*theoretical

Second Person

Second person nominals are all definite.

	Anim. Sg.	Anim. Pl.	Masc. Sg.	Masc. Pl.
Nominative	vu	ivu	ua	iua
Accusative	ui	iui	ue	iue
Dative	eui	ieui	eue	ieue
Ablative	vui	ivui	uai	iuai
Locative	vua	ivua	aua	iaua
Genitive	uui	iuui	uue	iuue
Possessive	*uvu	*iuvu	uua	iuua
Vocative	evu	eivu	eua	eiua
Causal	teui	teiui	teue	teiue
Benefactive	kuaui	kuaiui	kuaue	kuaiue
Instrumental	aui	aiui	aue	aiue
Comitative	leui	leiui	leue	leiue
Topical	veui	veiui	veue	veiue
Essive	ovu	oivu	oua	oiua

*theoretical

Third Person

Definite

	Anim. Sg.	Anim. Pl.	Masc. Sg.	Masc. Pl.	Inan. Sg.	Inan. Pl.
Nominative	ju	iju	ja	ija	xu	ixu
Accusative	ji	iji	je	ije	xi	ixi
Dative	eji	ieji	eje	ieje	exi	iexi
Ablative	jui	ijui	jai	ijai	xui	ixui
Locative	jua	ijua	aja	iaja	xua	ixua
Genitive	uji	iuji	uje	iuje	uxi	iuxi
Possessive	*uju	*iuju	uja	iuja	*uxu	*iuxu
Vocative	eju	eiju	eja	eija	exu	eixu
Causal	teji	teiji	teje	teije	texi	teixi
Benefactive	kuaji	kuaiji	kuaje	kuaije	kuaxi	kuaixi
Instrumental	aji	aiji	aje	aije	axi	aixi
Comitative	leji	leiji	leje	leije	lexi	leixi
Topical	veji	veiji	veje	veije	vexi	veixi
Essive	oju	oiju	oja	oija	oxu	oixu

*theoretical